Day #359

Sermon - Audio
2 Peter & Jude - Reading
2 Peter & Jude - Audio

Daily Insights - Please Comment

• 2 Peter 1.1: Peter’s description of himself at first seems somewhat common place until we think about the identity we give when people ask us who we are. How many of us would declare that our primary identity is a “slave of Jesus Christ”?
• 1.3: “knowledge” This word is important in 2 Peter as Peter does battle with false teachers. Right knowledge is a powerful instrument in living for God. Wrong knowledge destroys a godly life. This theme flows through all the Bible.
• 1.5: “add to your faith” The word “add” means to show something by your deeds. Here we find out that we are to show our faith by living out a life of certain virtues.
• 1.11: “receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom” These words may refer to receiving a welcome from those who lives have been impacted by our faithful living.
• 1.12-21: This part of the letter introduces us to the fact that this is Peter’s farewell discourse to the people. In ancient times a farewell discourse served as a leader’s last opportunity to influence his followers to continue to live faithfully according to what they had been taught.
• 1.16: The power of eyewitness testimony to keep people faithful is seen in the Old Testament. In Joshua 24.31 we read, Israel served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the LORD had done for Israel. In the history of Israel as long as there were people who were eyewitnesses to what God had done there was faithfulness. While that is Israel’s history, God’s intent was that his mighty deeds were to be passed from generation to generation, and so people would remain faithful--even if the eyewitnesses had died many generations before.
• 2.1-22: In this chapter Peter uses a satirical diatribe to level a devastating attack on his opponents. Satire exposes human vice or folly through ridicule or abuse. A diatribe is a form of teaching that was part of Greek and Roman society. It used methods such as questioning imaginary opponents, using famous figures from the past to bolster one’s arguments and so on. For us, besides knowing the literary style, it is important to see that the Biblical writers used the literary styles of the day. In using these styles they wrote in ways the people understood and identify the point the writers was seeking to make.
• • 2.1-22: The Literally Study Bible comments, “Rhetorically, this is one of the fireworks passages of the NT epistles. The imagery and metaphors explode off the page. Placed in the context of a farewell discourse, this is the leader’s prediction to his followers of what will happen after his death.”
• 2.10: “despise authority” The Greek word for “authority” refers to a throne or power that rules. The authority despised then in the authority of God and of his Son. Their authority is despised both by their false teaching and by their despicable lifestyles.
• 3.1-18: This last chapter is a wonderful teaching on the final days and the coming of Christ. It is in the form of a debate with Peter arguing his point against those who deny that God is coming and will renew the earth and judge the nations.
• 3.4: “the fathers” It is not clear who “the fathers” are, but the idea is clear. The false teachers argue that God has not interrupted the flow of history to this point and so he will not interrupt its flow in the future by sending Jesus back to earth. Among the many flaws in this argument is that God has consistently interrupted the flow of history by destroying nations, doing miracles and especially be sending Christ. Peter will make another argument
• against this thinking in the coming verses.
• 3.10: “elements” most likely refer to the sun, moon, and stars. While we are told that these elements are “destroyed” by fire we need to be cautious in how we interpret the word “destroyed”. In 2 Peter 3.6 we are told that the world is destroyed by the flood--yet we know that the destruction of the world by the flood served not to completely destroy it, but to purify it. The idea of purifying seems in line with Peter telling us that there will be a new heavens and a new earth. The word “new” is kainos in Greek. It carries the idea of being renewed, refreshed, and therefore superior to what was old. We see a similar picture of newness in 1 Corinthians 15 where we are told that we will receive bodies that are imperishable. There is also a theological matter at stake here: If God has to destroy the world rather than redeem it, then Satan has proven so powerful that he has destroyed the work of God. However, if the world is renewed, then the work of Christ is shown to be superior to the attack of Satan.

Jude
The book of Jude carries many echoes of the book of 2 Peter. As you read Jude, watch for similar language, struggles, and condemnation.

• Jude is really Judas, but in english it has been changed to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot.
• 3: contend is to exert an intense effort for something
• 4–19: these verses describe the false teachers while in 20–23 is the appeal to contend for the faith in a way that is done